On The Meandering Road: March 8 2017 - Baton Rouge, LA to Lafayette, LA

We were relieved to see that the weather looked better this morning. The ground was soaked from last night's thunderstorm.

BREC Farr Park Campground

Erwin called Acadian Campground in Lafayette, LA to get information on camping facilities and fees, but no one answered at the other end, so he left his message.

The hydraulic closer on one of the baggage doors on our Lil' Home came off loose and Erwin had to make new holes to reattach it. All is good for now.

Acadian Campground called back and said there is plenty of sites and told us to come on over.

We checked out of BREC Farr Park and RV Park at 11 am and got on I-10 West. Even though, there was construction alongside the traffic moved pretty good and without incidents.

Baton Rouge Skyline

Crossing over Mississippi River

There were lots of trucks going by on I-10 both ways. The roads were very bumpy. We exited at #104, made a left turn to get on Louisiana Ave. It took an hour and 15 minutes to get to Lafayette from Baton Rouge.

It was not hard to find Acadiana Park Campground. The sign on the main road was clearly visible.

Acadiana Park Office

The nightly fee was $20 with electricity and water. We reserved it for 2 nights. Credit cards or checks are not accepted, only cash.

After checking out several sites Erwin decided to go with #7 because the ground is higher than the road surface and is more level. After getting the Lil’ Home set up we went off to Winn Dixie for groceries.

After dropping groceries off we went out again for sightseeing in downtown Lafayette. There are murals throughout the city.

Mural done by Robert Dafford, the artist

Another mural done by Robert

Robert paintng mural on the City Hall

Lafayette obtained two beams, one from each World Trade Center building in New York, and they were dedicated on September 11, 2002. The beams are 13' 5" long and are placed in the same direction as the original towers. Also included in the dedication is a limestone piece from Pentagon and dirt from the Shanksville area where the Flight #93 crashed in. It is in Parc Sans Souci at the corner of Polk Street and E. Congress Street.

Parc Sans Souci, not far from the beams

While I was looking around Erwin decided to go in a gallery/gifts store that is at the corner of the park.

Across the street from the gallery/gifts store on Vermilion Street is a statue of a bare-chested firefighter holding a water hose. It is dedicated in memory of firefighters whose lives were lost while fighting fires.

There was another roadside attraction that we wanted to look at: Empty Head of Blind Justice. There are two of them and each is an urn that stands 5' tall. It was said that justice is supposed to be blind. There were talks that the empty head depicts it as brainless. Well, we think the head is empty because we all have no clue as to the outcome of the justice until it is announced.

We visited St. John's Cathedral that is on Cathedral Street in downtown Lafayette. The church was dedicated on June 27, 1916. The architectural style is Romanesque Revival. It is now listed on Historic Register of Historic Properties.

There were workers putting finishing touches on the front of the church. The interior nave has a series of arches supported by columns. There is a beautiful painting on the vaulted ceiling. The altar is made of marble with mosaic tiles. The stained glasses portray the saints.

On the right side of the cathedral is an ancient and majestic St. John Cathedral Oak tree. It is one of the largest live oak trees in the U.S.. It is estimated to be about 500 years old. The diameter of the trunk is 28 feet and 9 inches. The height is about 126 feet high and the spread is about 210 feet.

There is a cemetery behind the church, St. John Cemetery. It is the oldest in the city of Lafayette. Because of the high water table it became necessary to have burials above the ground, which is very common in the State of Louisiana. While we were walking through each row, checking out some interesting tombstones a lady came to Erwin and started to tell stories about her ancestors, the Moutons. She explained about General Alfred Mouton, her great great great (?) grandfather, who died at the age of 35 during the Confederate War.